Lifestyle factors associated with preterm birth
There are a few lifestyle factors that are thought to possibly increase the woman's risk of having her baby before 37 weeks. Be aware that these factors do not 'cause' preterm birth, they only 'increase the risk' of a baby being born prematurely.
They can include:
Heavy work
Alcohol and addictive substances
Stress
Domestic violence
Heavy work. There are some types of workloads during pregnancy that are associated with increasing the risks of having a preterm baby. These include heavy lifting, excessive noise, standing for long hours or work causing extreme tiredness. Most paid work with normal workloads, or the caring for other children are not linked with causing premature labour.
If you think your workload is excessive you should discuss this with your caregiver. You may be able to arrange a medical certificate to alter your work duties, reduce your hours or stop work.
Alcohol and addictive substances. The excessive use of alcohol, narcotics and other addictive substances can increase the risk for preterm birth. Smoking cigarettes is also associated with preterm birth and can reduce the baby's birthweight. Premature babies with low birth weights for their gestation have less chance of survival than premature babies of average weight for their gestation. If you are looking at quitting or cutting back your cigarette use you can read more in
lifestyle choices about smoking in pregnancy.
Stress. Everyone lives with a degree of stress in their lives and while it is ideal to be without it, it can sometimes be unavoidable. Normal day to day lifestyle and work stresses are not thought to contribute to preterm labour and birth. However, there is some evidence that a single highly stressful event can contribute to triggering preterm labour, but at this stage the link is inconclusive.
Domestic violence.